


i love you (a million ways to sunday)

by choose_joy



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Post-Canon, Slice of Life, angus is so loved you guys, anxiety attack, briefly though - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:20:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23138329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/choose_joy/pseuds/choose_joy
Summary: not everyone says "i love you" with words.(or: 3 times angus realizes he's loved)
Relationships: Angus McDonald & Taako, Barry Bluejeans & Angus McDonald, Barry Bluejeans/Lup, Kravitz & Angus McDonald, Kravitz/Taako (The Adventure Zone), Lup & Angus McDonald
Comments: 23
Kudos: 223





	i love you (a million ways to sunday)

People say “I love you” in lots of different ways, Angus has noticed. 

Some people say it all the time, a rush of affection bursting from their lips at the end of every conversation, as if they’re afraid they won’t get to say it again. Some people use it sparingly, so that each time it's said, it packs a punch. Some people don’t use it at all, and instead show their love through their actions, or gifts, or smiles. 

Somehow, without even realizing it, Angus’ life is overflowing with love.

***

Angus has been sitting at his desk for hours. The dorms are eerily silent, the students all too focused on passing their finals to make much noise beyond the occasional scream of frustration or choked sound of crying. Angus himself has let out a few curses of his own, especially after noticing he made a mistake on his transcription of a ritual circle early on in the paper he’s writing, which means the past hour he’s spent on equations is completely a wash.

Because of the silence, the sound of reality ripping next to him is noticeable immediately, though he doesn’t even turn his head. To his surprise, however, the culprit (a tall, dark-skinned man that might be imposing to any other student on campus) doesn’t say anything when he steps in. Instead, he looks around, taking stock of the room, before hopping through the portal again.

Weird, but not abnormal. 

Angus doesn’t have time to focus on that, though. He’s got a paper to rewrite, and then he has an entire project he hasn’t even started, and a fantasy powerpoint to compile for a presentation tomorrow, oh  _ god. _

He almost misses the sound of the portal reopening, so wrapped up in finishing his conclusion paragraph. He only looks up when he hears a solid  _ thunk  _ to his left, where he finds one of the blue ceramic bowls from Taako and Kravitz’s house, filled with cut up pieces of mango and watermelon and pineapple. Kravitz doesn’t say anything, just presses a firm kiss to the top of his head and squeezes his shoulder before stepping back through the portal.

Later, after Angus has finished the fruit (and his paper, and his project,  _ and  _ his fantasy powerpoint), he spies a little sticky note under the bowl, covered with Kravitz’s looping scrawl.  _ You’re doing great,  _ it says.  _ We’re very proud of you. Make sure to get some sleep. _

The sticky note gets tacked to the wall next to his bed, where it stays until he moves out of the dorms at the end of the year. Then, it gets pressed carefully into the cover of his journal, and never leaves his side.

***

It's a warm day at the beginning of summer when Lup and Barry come barrelling into Angus’ room, completely forgoing a cursory knock and instead launching into conversation, despite Angus’ squawk of protest.

So, a normal day at home, then.

“Hey Ango, we’ve got a bit of an emergency,” Lup says, already pulling him to his feet.

Angus takes this in stride, pushing his feet into his shoes as he asks the obvious: “Where are we going, Aunt Lup?”

Barry is the one who responds, this time, as Lup has suddenly found herself preoccupied with finding the boy a sweater. Somewhere cold, then. “We’re having trouble cracking this case and thought you’d be a good set of fresh eyes on the scene.”

Angus  _ beams.  _ “Thank you, sir! I’m so honored you thought of me!”

“Of course, kiddo!” Lup replies, who has now found a suitable sweater and is in the process of wrestling it over his head, “You’re one of the only bozos we trust not to fuck it up!” 

Angus solves the case, of course. The pat on the back that Barry gives him and the smile that threatens to split Lup’s face when he explains the solution fills him with more warmth than the summer sun.

***

“C’mon, sweet pea, we gots to get getting if we’re going to make it to Lup’s in time!” Angus shoots out of bed, his novel (a  _ theoretical, chill out Kravitz  _ necromantic manuscript of Barry’s) flying across the bed as he hears Taako’s voice through his door. Hastily, the boy shoves on his sneakers, hopping around on one foot as he holds the other up to be tied.

“Coming, dad!” he says, moving on to finding his matching cap-- the dark green one, that matches his pastel vest  _ perfectly _ . “Just a minute, I need to run to the bathroom!” He’s out of his room and down the hallway in a blink, brushing past Taako without a second thought.

Taako, who is currently standing stock still outside his door.

Angus is washing his hands by the time he realizes anything is wrong with the picture, and he wracks his brain trying to figure out what could be wrong. Did he forget his pants? Is his hair a disaster? 

...was Taako mad he wasn’t ready to go? Did he think Angus forgot? Was he upset that Angus was wasting his time? Does he secretly hate Angus? Is he just letting him live here out of pity?

Before he knows what’s happening, Angus feels himself start to let out big, gasping breaths as tears trickle down his face. Unthinkingly, he sinks to the floor, pressing his back to the wall and wrapping his arms around his legs, pressing his forehead into his knees as the tears keep flowing. All he can think about is how much Taako must  _ hate  _ him. He’s an annoying little kid, and he always gets under his feet, and... he can feel a hand rubbing his knee. And he can hear a soothing voice whispering something to him.

And when he opens his eyes, he can see the blurry outline of an elf sitting in front of him.

And that outline, with a face that looks so concerned, is what startles the tears right out of him. Suddenly, he can hear the phrases the elf is whispering: “it's okay”, and “I got ya”, and “I understand”, mixed in with shushing and cooing. The elf ( _ Taako _ , his brain supplies) notices his eyes focus on him, and takes that as a cue to stop his nonsense phrases. “Do you want a hug, kiddo?”

Angus nods slightly, a deep red blush spreading across his cheeks. He can’t bring himself to feel ashamed, though, because within seconds, he’s jostled around a bit and now Taako’s the one sitting with his back against the wall, and Angus is in his lap, surrounded by warm arms and a chin resting on his head, a hand playing softly with his curls. “Want to talk about it?” Taako asks.

Angus shakes his head no, pauses, and then nods. It takes him a minute, but he finally fights through the sticking in his throat. “Are you mad at me?”

It seems like Taako didn’t expect that, because he sucks in a breath through his teeth before answering. “Of course not, Ango, why would you think I was mad?”

Angus shrugs, unsure of how to explain his brain’s thought process. For some reason, though, that’s enough, because the elf nods before speaking again. “I’m sorry I scared you. You’ve... never called me that before. I wasn’t expecting it. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything, though.”

_ Oh _ , thinks Angus, _ that’s why. _ And yeah, that makes sense why Taako’d be surprised. Angus has spent weeks, months, calling him that in his head, getting used to it. There’s no way his mentor would’ve seen it coming, although there’s a little part of Angus that’s disappointed, and he starts to pull away. “It's ok if you don’t like it, sir. Or if maybe you need a break from me. Magnus has been wanting me to visit anyway so I can just go there! I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable.”

Taako responds by tightening his arms around the boy before speaking, “No, nope, you’re mine now! No way you’re getting out of here that easy.” The elf thinks on his next words for a minute, then: “This is your house too, bubbele. I’d never kick you out, not in a million years. And you can call me whatever you want, okay? You just surprised me, is all.”

Angus lets the words sink in, and allows himself to melt into the embrace a little bit more. The two sit there, on the bathroom floor, for a few minutes, just breathing. Somewhere along the line, Taako starts humming again, and the rumbling is a soothing vibration in Angus’ chest. “I love you, dad.” he says, before he can take it back. Taako doesn’t even stop humming, just presses a feather-light kiss to his forehead.

They’re late to Lup’s, of course, but Angus can’t find it in himself to be upset, especially when Taako responds to Lup’s questioning simply by saying “someone had to make sure my kid looks fly as hell,” while shooting a bright grin over to the boy in question. 

**Author's Note:**

> I love my sweet boy so much!! He deserves to be loved!!
> 
> This was so much fun to write. I might end up expanding it to include more relationships, but for now, I'm pretty pleased with it as a stand-alone, and I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> As always, I'm choose__joy on twitter and thisisadingdongblog on tumblr!


End file.
